Saturday, December 6, 2014

Roxie, Our Grey County Mutt

Roxie, our dog, is a Grey County mutt.  Both her parents were mutts too, so I take that to mean she's a genuine mutt - but she seems to have come out of it all quite well!

She has the markings of an Australian Shepherd, with white nose and tail tips, white paws, and a white collar, but neither parent had any white at all.  So who knows!?

At the moment, I'm not allowed to walk her on a leash, as we usually do (in case she pulled suddenly), so I'm just walking her off the leash, around our trails in the meadow.  We live on 2 1/2 acres, but I refuse to mow anything more than a circle around the house; however, I do mow trails out back, which she seems to love.  This is a week ago; it looks more white now!

This freedom seems to appeal to her.  First, she has to roll in the snow several times.  A lot easier than if she were on a leash.

She seems to tire of that after a bit and take a 1/2 second lying still to recover, then up and at it.  Off the leash, she can stop and sniff as much as she likes, and then she has to romp to catch up to me.  She doesn't get as long a walk usually, but it's a more natural dog-walk, a mixture of sniffing and running rather than just walking with me.

So is that good or bad?  I'm thinking it's mostly good, and I may keep it up even after I've recovered.  Perhaps fewer long on-the-leash walks, and more freedom on the meadow trails?

Of course Roxie's not the only critter on the trails.  A small herd of deer seem to wander through regularly, overnight or very early in the morning, so we hardly ever see them.  Of course they explore the garden among other things, hoping for tasty morsels!

Linking to:

18 comments:

  1. She is so gorgeous, and the twirl, swirl, great photo, as they all are, but that one is my pic for today.Jean.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely post of your dog, Roxie. Big dogs seem to really love rolling in the snow. Our little dogs didn't like to get their feet in the snow at all when we lived north. So funny. My hubby had to make a clearing for them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roxy is pretty cute and I think mutts make great pets!

    ReplyDelete
  4. She's beautiful! Our German shepherd wasn't so bad, but our dachshund loved to roll in everything. A few times when he managed to get away on his own he came home after rolling in rotten mushrooms and horse s**t. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. She is a beauty, I see Aussie and Maybe a bit of Blue Heeler. It doesn't really matter, I bet she is good company! Yes I think dogs prefer their kind of walk off lead where they can smell all the news! practice some voice control with her...some treats in the pocket might help:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's one beautiful dog whatever make it might be. And how lucky she is to have a place where she can run free.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Roxie is a beautiful dog! I think she enjoyed the walk and roll in the snow.. Great shots, thank you for linking up. Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  8. She sure is a happy critter, and she's pretty, too. I'm glad you are recovering so well and can walk around with camera in hand while Roxie plays. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cute dog! Roxie looks like she's having a blast in the snow.

    ReplyDelete
  10. She looks like she's a dog that has life made.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Rolling in the snow is so important!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dogs find such joy in the simple things like a good roll in the grass!

    ReplyDelete
  13. As I so often do (have got to work on changing my habit), I read your posts back to the one that described your illness but left my thoughts to roam around in my head before commenting and now realize I never did leave any thoughts at all on your blog. Love Roxie and agree with you that the more natural style of walking, sniffing, roaming a bit and then running to catch up is probably very enjoyable for her. As for your photos, your energy and discipline, your writing talent, your wife's support.. so many things that bring your story home to me and I know, to others. My partner was hospitalized three times.. two abdominal surgeries, brain injury caused by anaesthetic (slowly recovering), two hospital acquired infections.. within a year. While I appreciate the strides modern medicine has made, and the caring efforts of medical staff, it is my hope that we will be able to avoid hospitalization if at all possible for the foreseeable future. That said, I am very, very happy that things worked out so well for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Working out well so far, but it will be awhile before I'm back to normal. And I agree, if you can avoid hospitalization, do so!

      Delete
  14. Oh she is cute ! Nice shots ! She has an interesting tiger strip brindle colouring to her . Looks like Roxie loves to rolly polly like our Miggs in the snow who is also a Mutt . Our Miggs is mixed with Bearded Collie , Wheaten Terrier, Golden Retriever and a touch of hound ! Life is so much better with a dog around ! Thanks for sharing , Have a good week !

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a beautiful dog! She looks like she brings you lots of joy!

    ReplyDelete